


All Those Valuable Books

by Aierdome



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Breaking and Entering, Gen, Libraries, My horrible sense of humour is showing, Post-expedition, irrelevant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 03:04:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9215981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aierdome/pseuds/Aierdome
Summary: Tuuri has a target in her sights - the National Library of Sweden, and their collection of pre-Rash books. Unfortunately, they won't let her in without a permit, so she does what any reasonable person would do - she breaks in.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KrisseDeKovats](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrisseDeKovats/gifts).



It was almost midnight in the Västerström household in Mora, and everything seemed to be at peace. In the office, the stacks of books, papers and documents lay undisturbed on the desk, uncaring about the fire still glowing in the chimney, cracking softly. The only other sound was an occasional clacking of hooves from the outside as the last carriages of the night passed by. A small electric lamp shone faintly from the wall, illuminating the desk and the armchair, in which Emil Västerström reclined, his eyelids getting heavier and heavier as he tried to focus on the book in front of him.

Tuuri walked into the room, a slip of paper in one hand as she rubbed her shoulder with the other. By now, her injury was almost healed, but it still ached every so often. Nevertheless, she didn’t let this sour her mood as she peeked over Emil’s head. She blinked.

“You’re reading Poetic Edda?”

“Uh?” He looked up. “Yeah, the… Thr… Thrym…”

“Thrymskvida? The one where Loki dresses Thor up as Freya to marry him off to a Jotun? Why?”

“Um… well… You know, knowing that magic is real and all that, I figured maybe I should read up… learn a bit.”

Tuuri’s eyebrows shot up. Emil was actually learning stuff on his own? The expedition must’ve shaken him more than she had thought. She smiled.

“That’s nice. I can’t believe you’re falling asleep over it, though… It’s one of the funniest sagas.”

“It sure sounded funny when the shopkeeper described it to me. It’s much less so when you try to translate it from Icelandic as you read, though.”

Tuuri leaned over the page.

“If you don’t speak Icelandic, why won’t you buy a translation?”

Emil scoffed.

“They don’t have it. I visited ten bookshops – ten bookshops, would you believe? – and none of them have the Swedish translation of the bloody Thry… Thrymsk… This thing. Someone even told me that they wouldn’t even stock ‘such heathenish writings’, would you believe?”

Tuuri considered it for a moment, then grinned. As it happened, it fit her plans _perfectly_.

“Well, then, I have a proposition.”

“Uh-oh.” Emil raised his head. “What is it?”

She showed him the slip of paper she was holding. He took it, putting the Thrymskvida aside at the nearest stack, which proceeded to fall apart all over the floor. They both ignored it as Emil studied the slip.

“Natural Sciences, Recent History, Geography... what am I looking at?”

Tuuri swayed on the balls of her feet, tapping the back of the armchair.

“The list of divisions of the Swedish National Library in Mora!”, she hissed excitedly. “Look at the last position!”

“Um... Old World Books?” He looked up at her. “Seems like someplace you might want to go to…”

“Of course it is! Only to enter this one division, you have to be a skald!”

Emil blinked.

“You _are_ a skald, right?”

“But not a Swedish skald. You skalds have some papers, permits, all that. When I told the man at the desk that I’m a Finnish skald, he looked at me like I was some sort of savage!”

Tuuri took a deep breath, the memory of the man still making her think of various ways a person could be murdered. After a few deep breaths, she looked back down at slightly worried Emil and smiled, which only made his eyes widen.

“Anyway, I figured that if _they_ don’t let me in, I’ll do it myself.”

She waited as Emil pondered this for a moment. Then his jaw dropped.

“You want to rob the National Library?!”, he whispered, leaning closer.

“No, just break in! I’m not going to steal anything, just see what they have!”

“That’s not the point! Why don’t you… ask my aunt to let you in? I’m sure she has the papers!”

“She left for Iceland today, remember? They’re all doing the research about that cure data we brought back!”

Emil breathed deeply as Tuuri stared at him, trying to decipher his emotions.

“Why are you telling me thi- oh. Oh, no. You want me to go with you, don’t you?”

“Yeah! Don’t worry, I’ve scouted the way already. No-one will catch us.” The former wasn't entirely true, but she was quite certain of the latter.

Emil stared at her.

“Why me?”

“Who else?”

Sigrun, whom Tuuri betted on as being the one most eager for this type of job, had left for Norway for the troll-hunting season; Mikkel had vanished shortly after the expedition with a quarter of the books they’ve recovered; Reynir had been spirited away by the Seiður Academy; an express boat from Keuruu had taken Lalli and Onni to Finland to be questioned about the spirits they’d seen. They didn’t have enough space to take Tuuri with them, so for now she was staying with Emil, his uncle and the three little _hiidet_.

Emil took a deep breath.

“Why not wait for aunt Siv to come back? Or apply for the paper, I’m sure you won’t have a problem if there's any exam necessary!”

“But it takes too long! Emil, Onni had me buy a ticket back to Keuruu, and the ship leaves next week! I _have_ to see if there’s anything worth reading there!”

Emil watched her for a moment.

“You… could apply for a permit and then come here from Keuruu. I mean, it’s not like we’re short on cash any more… So…" He paused for a moment, then cocked his head to the side. "Are you breaking in because you want read the books or becaue you want to have your revenge on the guy at the front desk?”

Tuuri started to retort, then stopped herself.

“Bit of both.” She leaned closer to Emil and he backed down, worried. She smiled wider.

“Emil, I’m going to break into that library whether you’re with me or not. So – are you going with me, or are you letting me go on my own?”

* * *

Emil glanced up and down the street, making sure no-one was watching him before he ducked into the narrow alley. It was dark there; the city’s electric grid only covered the main roads, and the night sky was overcast, hiding the moon and stars. A troll night, the instructors back at the Cleanser camp would say. It still sent shivers down Emil's back, even though it's been nearly a month since he'd returned to the Known World.

He stalked across the alley after Tuuri and the two quickly made their way across another street, Emil’s head almost turning loose on his neck as he tried to see everything around him at once. He felt as if he was being followed; but the midnight streets, illuminated as they were with thick yellow light, were empty. He ran his fingers through his hair, nervous.

As he slid into the next alley, Tuuri turned to glance at him.

“Could you try to be _less_ sneaky, please? I’m pretty sure we’ll alert everyone if we look like burglars.”

“We _are_ burglars!”, he hissed.

“No, we’re not. We’re not stealing, remember?”

He tried glowering at her, which was made easier by the fact that he happened to stand in a puddle of water from the evening rainfall. She shrugged and kept on walking.

“Don’t worry, it’s just two streets over.”

“Mhm…” He was still surprised that the library was in the Outer Mora, but he supposed it made sense; no skald from halfway across the country would wait for months just to enter a library.

As he was nearing the exit into another street, a splash behind him made him freeze. He quickly spun around, only to see the blond mop and green eyes of his cousin, hidden in a too-big coat.

“Sune? What are you…?”

The boy made the motion to sprint away. Emil got to him in three long hops and grabbed him by the collar, then took him off the ground.

“Hey! Hey, let me go!”, Sune hissed.

“What are you doing here?!”, Emil whispered into his ear, casting panicked glances around himself. A few strands of blonde hair stuck out from behind a trash container near the entrance to the alley. “Oh, don’t tell me you’re all here…”

Tuuri joined him.

“What… oh, _no_.”

Emil frowned at the disgust in her voice, holding Sune close. The boy hissed at the Finn's sight like a cat.

“Put me on the ground!”, he whispered to Emil.

“Are you going to bolt?”

“No! Promise!”

Emil carefully put him down, then quickly walked around the trash container. Anna’s and Håkan’s nervous smiles met him. He sighed, once again trying to get his hair in order as he looked at all three.

“What are you even…? Does uncle know you’re here?”

“Of course not!” Anna said, sticking her chin out. “Dad’s asleep!”

Emil nodded slowly.

“Why are you here?”

“We’re robbing the library with you!”, Håkan told him. “We’ve heard you planning!”

“We’re not robbing anything!”, Tuuri scoffed.

“But why?”, Emil asked, ignoring Tuuri's protest for now.

“Because it’s fun?” Sune said. “And we’re _super_ bored.”

“Please, let us go with you!”, Håkan said. The other’s nodded.

“Please!”

“Please!”

“Pretty please!”

“We’ll call the police if you don’t let us!”

Emil looked at Tuuri.

“We should really all go home.”

She narrowed her eyes.

“I’m not leaving this.”

“ _Emiiiil_! If you go home, we’re going with her!”, Anna said.

“I could grab you all and carry you with me,” he told her.

“You can only carry two of us,” Håkan pointed out. “And if you grab us, we’ll tear all the hair from your head.”

Emil glared at him. Even Sune seemed appalled, clasping down on his own mop. Tuuri glared at the kids, then at Emil.

“Alright, let them go. It’s a library, not an army base. Nothing bad will happen.”

Emil breathed slowly.

“I kind of hate you right now,” he whispered.

* * *

 

The library was made up of five old three-floor tenements, with doorways made between the separating walls and all entrances but one walled up. There was light coming from one of the windows. Muffled sounds of gramophone music seeped outside underneath the door.

“So, that’s not an option,” Tuuri said, half to others, half to herself, leaning on the wall in the shadow between two street lights. Beside her, Emil was still fretting, while the three _hiidet_ seemed to have overcome the mutual dislike of her and were actually getting excited about the upcoming break-in. The one with curly ponytails – Anna – leaned closer to her.

“We could come in from the back!”, she whispered. “There’s a… a space between four rows of buildings, square-like. They keep carriages there, we could climb them and get through the window!”

Tuuri nodded slowly, smiling at Anna.

“Nice, thank you. And how do you know that?”

“We had a school trip to the library,” Short Hair – Håkan – told her.

Tuuri decided not to ask what a school trip was, and instead led her small group around the corner, where a small round gate led to the inner… square thingy. On the library side, it was taken up by a small stable, the smell of horses and hay rising from it. The only thing stopping a thief seemed to be a padlock.

Using the nearby tree, they’ve managed to climb on top of the stable. Tuuri dropped to the ground, hiding herself from the windows. Behind her, Emil pulled himself up and looked around.

“Other that the library, seems like everyone has their curtains pulled closed,” he whispered.

“See?”, Tuuri turned to him with a smile. “Piece of cake.”

“Great,” he murmured, helping his cousins up. “Why don’t one of you stay down there as a lookout, huh?”

“No!”, his look-alike, Sune, whispered. “We’re all going in.”

Emil glared at Tuuri. She smiled, hiding her nervousness. Inasmuch as they were usually rather meek people, Siv and Torbjörn would have her hide if she got their kids arrested.

_Nobody’s getting arrested,_ she reminded herself, stepping to the nearest window in a low hunch. She peeked inside and smiled. Rows of books, shrouded in darkness, greeted her. In the faint light of the stable lamp, she could see the gleam of words on their spines, though they were too far to make out individual letters.

She felt Emil moving beside her.

“We can’t get in, though,” he whispered, clearly relieved.

“No! Look down there,” Håkan said, pointing to another window.

“It’s closed,” Anna murmured.

“But the hatch isn’t! You could push it open.”

“The guard will hear,” Emil hissed.

“The guard is too preoccupied with Mozart to be hearing anything,” Tuuri murmured, stalking past him to the window Håkan had pointed out. She pushed on it – it squeaked a bit, but finally budged. She almost fell inside, and it was only Emil quickly grabbing her shoulder that saver her. She smiled at him. He still seemed dubious.

They quickly filed in through the window, all quiet now that they’ve entered the giant’s den. Emil closed the window behind them and Tuuri led them all towards the flight of stairs that went up to the third floor and the Old World Books Division. Soft music accompanied them, flowing from below. Tuuri tried to time her steps so that they’d hit the floor in time with the louder sounds, but others didn’t seem to bother.

They’ve reached the stairs and Tuuri quickly climbed up, the wooden planks blessedly quiet. At the top of the staircase, she reached the door. _Old World Books_ , the plaque nailed to it said, _by permit only_. Tuuri grinned, remembering the face of the obnoxious men at the front desk, and pressed the handle.

The door didn’t open.

Of course. It was locked.

For a moment, Tuuri felt rather dumb for not thinking about it.

They stood on the staircase for a while, the Old World music playing from a distance. Then Sune pushed his way under Tuuri’s elbow and rolled his eyes like an older man. He procured a pair of hairpins from his pockets and quickly went to work on the lock.

After half a minute, to Tuuri’s astonishment, the lock clicked. She pushed on the handle and just like that, they were in.

* * *

Emil closed the door behind them and looked at Sune with suspicion.

“When and why did you learn lock picking?”, he asked in a low whisper.

“Mom keeps all the hair cosmetics in a locked shelf,” Sune said. He was gracious enough to show some guilt. “I’ve got to reach them somehow.”

“Ah.” Emil nodded. “I approve, then.”

He looked back at the door.

“Alright, now seriously. One of you has to keep watch and alert us if the guard is going to arrive. We can’t have the sound of door opening be our last warning.”

The three kids looked at one another. Finally, begrudgingly, Håkan raised a hand. Emil nodded.

“I want cookies tomorrow, though,” the kid whispered, then slid outside.

This taken care of, Emil looked around. Faint light from the streets was flowing through the attic windows, just barely illuminating stacks of books, organized in heaps rather than any shelves. Tuuri was walking among them, squinting.

“I should’ve brought a light,” she whispered. “And why aren’t there any shelves?”

“Maybe those books aren’t that important?”, Emil murmured, walking closer as Anna and Sune started browsing through the books.

“Remember to put them back in their place!”, Anna hissed to her brother.

It was honestly quite scary how easily crime came to Emil’s cousins. He shook his head and walked to Tuuri, pulling out a box of long matches. She looked at him with abject horror.

“They’ll burn down!”

“It would look pretty, though,” Emil whispered, then backed down as her eyes widened. “Just joking! Don’t worry! I’m, I'm a qualified cleanser, I know how to use fire!”

“Let’s… assume so, yes,” Tuuri whispered.

Emil lit a match and she picked a book from the stack. She squinted, trying to make the words out in the faint light.

“ _Dragon’s Legacy._ ” She turned it to look at the back. “ _Where legend meets the common world…_ That’s promising… _Georgina thought she had it all – family, fame, friendship_ – and alliteration, too – _yet there was an empty void in her heart. And then – him. Drake. Charming, mysterious, dark and… unapproachable. Georgina made it her purpose to seduce him, yet little did she know, Drake’s secret was not of the common kind…_ ”

Emil blinked. 

“What? Was he… a serial killer?”

“Oh, I think he was a dragon.”

“I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be much of a secret if he was a giant reptile…”

Tuuri spread her arms wide.

“I don’t know. But it sounds interesting.”

“A woman-on-dragon romance novel sounds interesting to you?” Emil smiled.

Tuuri frowned and shrugged, then put the book down and went to another stack. Emil hissed under his breath as the match’s fire reached his fingers, then put it out and lit another one. He quickly caught up with Tuuri and they leaned over the new book.

“ _The Longing of Emily Mays._ Romance novel…” Another stack, another match. “ _Dating A Vampire_. What’s a vampire? Anyway, romance.” Another stack, then yet another match. “ _A Merman’s Touch._ Ah-I think that’s a romance novel, too. Oh, no…”

She looked at Emil, heartbroken.

“You were right! Those books really _are_ unimportant.”

Emil blinked, surprised.

“What, those are all romances? Can't be.”

She shook her head, eyes filled with disappointment.

“They are all... No wonder this collection isn’t popular… it’s just old-timey low-quality romances…”

From their own stack, Anna and Sune nodded.

“Yep,” the latter said, “We have something about a young… ‘maiden’ coming to a… ‘castle’ to serve some wealthy family, and falling in love with the heir. Book one of... forty? Who’d collect that?”

“Someone had a hobby?”, Anna suggested. Emil snuffed out yet another match, slightly relieved.

“Well, now that we know it’s worthless, we can all go back to-”

_EEEEEEeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!_

Everyone froze at the sound. Emil's eyes widened as he recognized the sound. 

“No..."

“Fire alarm!” Anna cried out, pointing at the white disc on the ceiling. Tuuri blinked.

“What’s fi-“

“It beeps when there’s smoke!”, Emil told her, “We have to get out!”

They rushed to the door, not caring about the books they’ve left strewn about. Håkan opened them first.

“What did you _do_?”, he hissed. “He’ll come upstairs any minute!”

They ran down the stairs, just in time to hear the creaking of the staircase leading to the ground floor. Emil looked at the window.

“We don’t have time!” Anna hissed.

An idea popped into his head.

“Hide among the bookshelves!”, he whispered, “No, the other side! And quiet!”

They hid in the dark as the night guard climbed up, panting, then turned around and rushed upstairs, to the Old World Books. Emil waved at the others to hurry. They stumbled downstairs quickly, their footsteps echoing all too loud.

He heard the voice upstairs and cursed as the guard cried out:

“Stop right there!”

_You kidding me?!_ He grabbed Anna in one arm, scooped Håkan in the other and rushed down past Tuuri, skipping two steps at a time.

“Did you have to light fire?!”, Håkan hissed.

“How was I supposed to know there was an alarm?!” Emil called, turning down the stairs and almost slipping. “Only Cleansers have them!”

“Well, clearly not!”

They shot out of the library, already hearing the bell of the fire brigade’s carriage down the road. Tuuri holding Sune in her hands, they rushed the other way, then jumped into the side alley and ran as far as their feet could carry them, the bell of fire carriage chasing them through the empty streets. Emil lost count of how far they went, and frankly, he didn't care much.

Incredulously, he heart Tuuri laughing as she slowed down and put Sune on the ground. Emil stopped and turned to her.

“What are you doing?”

“Emil, we’re halfway home already! Gods! All that travel through the Silent World did a miracle on our stamina!” She chuckled again.

“That’s not funny! We should keep running!”

“No! Let me down first!”, Anna hissed, fidgeting under his arm.

“Now we’ll just make ourselves look more suspicious,” Tuuri said, her hands on her knees. Emil was still breathing heavily, but he did put the kids down. He shook his head, then leaned to Tuuri.

“You said this whole mess would go _flawlessly_.”

She raised one finger.

“Never said that. Said _nothing would happen_.”

“Oh, that’s much of a difference.”

She straightened out and spread her arms wide.

“Hey, we got away, right? And look at it this way, at least we now know that there’s no reason to go back!”

Emil glared at her, but decided to say nothing.

* * *

In the morning they all sat around the kitchen table, trying not to fall asleep. Mr Västerström came in, holding a morning newspaper. Tuuri raised her head from the cup of tea, wary as he read.

“Hello, sleepyheads… Huh, would you look at that! There was a break-in at the National Library.”

Emil’s head perked up.

“Really? What happened? Anything got destroyed?”

Tuuri cursed in her head as Torbjörn glanced at him.

“I didn’t think you cared. But no, fire alarm chased them away. The paper said the robbers were two boys holding some packages… some speculate they wanted to blow the library up.”

_Boys?_ Tuuri scoffed inwardly. _Maybe I should let my hair grow again…_ The kids also clearly didn’t like being called packages, but knew to keep quiet.

“So nobody stole anything?”, Emil asked.

“Oh… there was one book stolen from the Old World section, apparently.” Mr Västerström looked up from the paper. “Don’t know why only one, but hey, good luck to whoever got it. Anyway, I’ll just grab the coffee and leave, I’ve got some books to sell…”

After he left, Emil glared at them all, but everyone’s faces were masks of innocence.

“You said break-in, not robbery,” he whispered to Tuuri.

“Maybe they just misplaced it?”, Anna murmured.

“Maybe,” Tuuri agreed. “Dunno about you, but I’m going to catch some more sleep. See you in the evening.”

She climbed to her room upstairs and closed the door, then reached into the trunk and pulled out a book. Then she sat down in the armchair and, with a smile on her face, opened _Dragon’s Legacy._

**Author's Note:**

> Thrymskvida is a real thing, and Tuuri's summary of it is pretty on point. Give it a read - it's available for free online.


End file.
